‘Liberian women have important mission’

Mrs. Obama speaks to female students in Liberia during her one-day visitPhoto: micatliberia.com

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama has said women in Liberia have an important mission to accomplish, which she believes they can do if they acquire education.

“No matter what anybody tells you, I want you to keep fighting. Stay in school; go to secondary school; go to university if you can and then, when you do all that, I want you to continue to be the leaders that you are and come back to your communities, and find other girls just like you who are working and striving because they need your support,” Mrs. Obama stressed.

She made the call at the Peace Corps Training Center in Kakata, Margibi County on Monday when she spoke to female students during her one-day visit to Liberia under her “Girls Leading Our World” (GLOW) initiative.

“I am excited to visit Liberia; I have read and heard a lot about you and the challenges you are faced with, but more importantly, I have heard about how hard you are working to be role models and leaders in your community, and that is one of the reasons I wanted to be here to shine a big, bright light on you,” Mrs. Obama told the students.

US First Lady Michelle Obama and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf listen as a Liberian female student makes a remarkPhoto: micatliberia.com

She indicated that one of the reasons why GLOW is working with Peace Corps is because it is one of the ways that the cultures and norms that say girls are not worthy of an education can really be resolved, noting, “That is why this GLOW program is so important.”

“You are important; you are worthy of an education; You are going to be mothers, and it is so important for you to have the confidence and the intelligence and the knowledge to raise beautiful, healthy kids yourselves; that is how we change generations; that is how we grow as nations and as a world,” Mrs. Obama emphasized.

She told the students that while they are working hard to get education, there are 62 million other girls around the world that do not have these opportunities; noting, “When women aren’t educated, when girls do not get the chance to go to school and fulfill that potential, that hurts all of us, not just us in Liberia, but all of us around the world.”

Mrs. Obama lauded the Peace Corps for the job they are doing at the Center, adding, “I am so proud of you all, because we cannot do what we do without you all doing the work on the ground here over a long period of time because this work is vitally important and I want to shine a light on you all for all the young people, or the not-so-young people, as far as the Peace Corps is concerned.”